“Observation” media turned into “extortion” media, capable of redirecting the audience’s attention; sports management, specifically football, serves to launder money. Before, drug generals, judges and prosecutors who had their visas revoked because of their, I assume widely verified, connections with the mafia.

There are many signals that, in just over three years in office, the ambassador of the United States in Quito sends decisively and openly, as warnings to this once peaceful country, which in the last decade has become violent, corrupt and attacked by the mafia of drug dealers.

Who is Michael J. Fitzpatrick, the American diplomat who denounces the infiltration of the drug trade into the institutions of Ecuador

Already in October, Michael J. Fitzpatrick himself, congratulating the current president on his victory, said without a filter that the result was “a firm yes in favor of democracy and a strong no to drug dealers, terrorists”. A statement that left more than one indignant and invoking sovereignty, in the sense that the ambassador should not act in internal politics, with which I do not agree, because it is essential that anyone who has reliable information about malicious actions submit it for the common good.

And if we want to find context for his actions, this sentence from the ambassador in an interview with a local magazine may be graphic enough: “We don’t want thieves or their money in our country.”

It is unfortunate that all this is happening in front of the eyes of many Ecuadorians, the majority, and especially those who were in power. What is reprehensible is that many of them have chosen to look away, in a mixture of fear, irresponsibility and inevitable corruption.

The ambassador then, as we are used to, looks for the right moment to put his finger on the sore spot and assumes the much-needed role of warning. And it is obvious that he is acting, according to his capabilities and the tools that diplomacy allows him. Because perhaps in some of those reported cases, visa withdrawal has become the biggest act of sanction in a national environment where the pressure to achieve impunity is carried out in the open, in the light of day.

“Impunity in transnational organized crime and corruption is great, every afternoon. Organized crime and corruption take advantage of jurisdictions where institutions are under construction because they guarantee impunity,” Michael J. Fitzpatrick thought a few months ago at the Andean University in Quito.

The allusion to “extortionate” media and football transactions as part of mob interaction is undoubtedly a rumor that the Embassy must have been able to confirm and launch. And I’m not surprised because there have been loose threads there for some time.

“Ecuador is going through a complex moment in which the truth as a key value of peaceful coexistence in a democratic society is in danger of being forgotten,” said Ambassador Andini.

I would add that when the earth is near the bottom, “there will be signs.” The ambassador was in charge of sending almost all of them. Now it remains for our authorities to be informed. (OR)